Immigration lawyer: Trump's wall won't work

In early 2015, I entered a stuffy, packed courtroom in downtown Los Angeles known as the Federal Immigration Court at Pershing Square. I was the Immigration and Customs Enforcement trial attorney, and my job was becoming increasingly complex. I was doing my best to navigate the nuanced priorities set by President Obama to deport felons, not families, as well as to identify people who pose a threat to society.

I took a deep breath as the judge called the first case — a crying baby, no more than 8 months old, and just one of the thousands of unaccompanied minors in immigration court during the Central America border surge. The judge glared at me while trying to figure out how to get an infant on the official court record.

Before I became an enforcer of our immigration laws, I worked at the State Department under Secretary Hillary Clinton. During one trip to Central America, I listened to government officials from the region express frustration about our mass deportation of hardened criminals, many of whom spoke little Spanish. These native sons and daughters had learned violence on the streets of L.A., and upon arrival back in their home countries, they continued the cycle of violence.

Even then, we sought to help our neighbors to the south reintegrate those individuals on a larger scale. We needed to strike a balance between enforcing our immigration laws at home while also fighting transnational crime arising from gang violence and human and drug trafficking in the region.

Donald Trump’s latest immigration speech portrays America under Obama and Clinton as a lawless nation that allows all criminal immigrants to stay in the country. But his fear tactics distort the reality of our system. He claims that it is run by the political elite, but that wasn’t my experience. I worked alongside ordinary civil servants looking for humane ways to focus our deportation efforts on national security threats, known gang members, violent criminals and recent arrivals to the U.S.

Of course, Trump’s hallmark policy is a border wall that he insists Mexico will finance under threat that Trump would ban billions of dollars in remittances sent home by undocumented immigrants. Not only is Trump’s border wall ludicrous — but I believe it would fail miserably. As an ICE officer, I visited the wall along the San Diego and Tijuana border, and saw portions blasted by smugglers only to be rebuilt over and over again on the taxpayers' dime. How many times would Trump try to rebuild his multibillion dollar wall? Once? Ten times?

To be sure, we have work to do to secure our border, but the steps we need to take are in the direction of improved technology, increased resources and reliance on good, old-fashioned American ingenuity to solve this complicated problem.

In contrast to Trump’s wall-centered policy, Clinton promises to push for comprehensive immigration reform in her first 100 days in office. She has also vowed to defend Obama's executive actions to keep families together, and ensure that violent criminals and those who are a threat to society are detained and deported.

When I was part of ICE, I reviewed thousands of cases that ranged from violent criminals to innocent babies and their mothers. My goal was to remain true to our values as a nation of immigrants, while also prioritizing the security of our communities. In a system where the individual does not have a right to an attorney, I was constantly balancing the tension between enforcing the law and ensuring that the administrative process moved ahead to determine whether relief was available to the individual.

In the end, I decided that nobody "wins" or "loses" in immigration court — but everyone leaves feeling scarred. Our immigration system has been overly politicized and our laws are inadequate, forcing certain immigrants into court because there is no ability to seek relief elsewhere. People can languish for years on simple administrative issues that could be solved if only they had a court-appointed attorney. Finally, our immigration judges are doing Herculean work that remains woefully underfunded and underappreciated.

If we are going to fix our immigration system, we need a leader in the Oval Office who understands the gravity and complexity of the problem. Trump has made immigration the center of his campaign by promoting oversimplified proposals and demonizing an entire segment of our society. I fear what America would look like with Trump at the helm. For voters who care about keeping our communities safe, and who believe there is a difference between an 8-month-old baby and a violent criminal, there is a lot at stake this November. For this former ICE official, the choice is clear.

Laura Peña​, a business immigration attorney, is a former assistant chief counsel at Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles and San Diego; a former State Department adviser; and a former law clerk to U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. She was director of Latino outreach for Clinton's 2008 campaign.